A rare early evening meteor shower will blaze through the night sky this week

The draconid meteor shower, which will send shooting stars across our night sky from Wednesday to Sunday, October 6-10, is that rare meteor shower that offers most of its display in the evening rather than after midnight.

The Draconids’ radiation point is highest in the sky – near the head of the constellation Draco the Dragon in the northern sky – early in the evening, which produces the early evening shower.

The peak of the shower is expected on the evening of Friday, October 8, which should be a good night’s observation with a crescent crescent moon setting before dark.

Draconids aren’t usually an overly active meteor shower – normally 5-10 per hour – but are known to blaze with hundreds, if not thousands, of meteors per hour.

According to EarthSky.org, “This rain produced stunning meteor displays in 1933 and 1946, with thousands of meteors per hour seen during those years. European observers saw more than 600 meteors per hour in 2011.”

The Draconids are debris left behind by Comet 21P / Giacobini-Zinner, colliding with Earth’s upper atmosphere as the planet’s orbit pushes it through the flow of debris.